Pages

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Do magnets sap power from lithium batteries in handphones?

DO MAGNETS SAP POWER FROM LITHIUM BATTERIES IN HANDPHONES?

Do magnets sap power from lithium batteries in handphones?


CNET.com's cell phone expert Kent German believes that small, normal magnets would not have any adverse effects on the battery life, or any other part of a phone. 

Most mobile phones come attached with a magnet in the speakers, and they have not been found to interfere with the phone's functions in any manner. So the magnetic flaps on your pouch are unlikely to influence the battery life of your phone. 

We checked a few forums, and some users have identified the following problems with their phone pouch: 

(a) The pouch does not fit the phone properly and presses on the buttons, thus keeping the phone 'awake'. 
(b) The pouch affects reception. An article from deadzones.com noted that some common pouch materials such as metal and carbon fibre can cause a noticeable drop in signal strength. 

An article on PC Magazine states that poor reception will result in the iPhone searching for a stronger signal, resulting in battery drain. 

We assume that such battery drains could occur on phones of other makes too. So the likely culprit could be just your handphone pouch instead of the magnetic flap on it.

WHY DO WE NEED TO CHARGE OUR MOBILE PHONE FOR 8 HOURS THE FIRST TIME WE CHARGE IT?

Why do we need to charge our mobile phone for 8 hours the first time we charge it? Is it to prolong the life of the battery?

Dear Sir/Mdm,

Thank you for your enquiry. 

The need to charge a new mobile phone battery for eight hours before use seems to refer to nickel-based batteries. However, “most mobile phone batteries these days are lithium-based rather than nickel-based”, according to an article on CNET. “While nickel batteries had to be charged for over 10 hours before first use (to prime the battery), lithium batteries only need to be charged until the mobile phone says the battery is full.” 

When queried, SingTel cited the reason for the need to charge the battery before use is to ‘break’ or ‘activate’ the battery cell to optimise the full capacity of the battery. However, this may refer to the old nickel-based batteries. 

According to the Battery University web site, “rechargeable batteries may not deliver their full rated capacity when new and will require formatting. While this applies to most battery systems, manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries disagree. They say that Li-ion is ready at birth and does not need priming. Although this may be true, users have reported some capacity gains by cycling these batteries after long storage. 

Lithium-ion is a very clean system and does not need formatting when new, nor does it require the level of maintenance that nickel-based batteries do. The first charge is no different than the fifth or the 50th. Formatting makes little difference because the maximum capacity is available right from the beginning.” 

Source:
http://www.cnet.com.au/extend-your-mobile-phones-battery-life_p3-240064190.htmhttp://batteryuniversity.com/le%20arn/article/how_to_prime_batteries

Ref:stomp

No comments:

Post a Comment